Holidays

The holiday season is officially here. I mostly love this season. I love all the time we get with family. I love all the dinners around the table. I dislike that it happens in winter.
We are blessed that both our families live fairly close to each other so we don't have to choose who to spend the holidays with. We get to see everyone. Thanksgiving dinner we went to Jake's grandparents. Both sets came together along with cousins and aunts. It was fun to see everyone.
4 generations

Dad Stevens holding Xander - grandma and grandpa Stevens - grandma and grandpa McEntire - 

Mom Stevens holding Kaleb

We left home on Tuesday. Kaleb had school but Xander didn't. I used that time to take Xander to the beauty college for a haircut. Too bad Kaleb didn't get a chance for a trim.

I am the youngest of 8 kids. My great-grandma was alive for a few months after I was born. I don't recall seeing any pictures of her holding me.
I love that the boys will know all their grandparents.

One of the Thanksgiving highlights was watching Grandpa Mc go for a ride. The cousins fixed up the old motorcycle that had been hunkering in the garage for quite a while. Grandpa was so excited...grandma, not so much. What a special treat to see him take off down the street. Just goes to show that you don't have to grow old.

 The boys loved watching the motorcycle zoom around.

 Cousin Peyton joined in keeping vigil.

Bruce-Brent-Brad-Grandpa-Blake (the motorcycle boys)

Jake's sister Raygan took it out for a spin

 

The boys loved watching but weren't so sure when I asked if they wanted to sit on it.

 

The boys had a no nap day. Kaleb was falling asleep as grandpa rocked them.

Next we ventured a few hours South to my parents house to see my family. I forgot to pull out the camera. But it was still fun! Jake got his pumpkin pie and he was ecstatic. He was trying to convince the boys to also love it. He figures if more than just him likes it I'll have to make it more often. I am not a fan of most pie.
We did a little bit of late night shopping. Just 10pm for a few movies at WalMart. I went to a few stores over the next few days.
Most importantly, I made Kaleb get a haircut. It was full throttle drama. He screamed murder and fought as hard as he could. I ended up sitting in the chair with him to hold him down and told the lady to just use the clippers best she could. Get it done quick. I even brought a whole bag of gummie bears as a bribe. He wasn't haven't any of that! It was worth it, he looks so much better.

 Kaleb was figuring out how to use the camera. Took quite a few self portraits and not so flattering pictures of me.

We're back home again. I've had a cold for at least a week and a half. Trying to keep everyone else healthy. Today I am ignoring the disastrously messy house, not unpacking and generally doing nothing useful.

Why I Give Thanks

Love for family grows over time. As I have gotten older, I have truly been able to appreciate how important my family is to me. During my twenties, my appreciation slightly dwindled. I still knew how much they loved me, and I did love them back, but I went through that phase (as most adult-children do) where I just really didn't want them involved in every little decision I made. I wanted to run my own household.  
I had some great experiences away from home. I met the love of my life, which I am not sure I would have if I had still been at home. I inherited a wonderful set of in-laws. I have only been in their family for 8 years, but I look forward to the many more years I will be able to spend with them, and I hope they feel the same. They raised an incredible son, the love of my life. I am convinced he is perfect for me.  
I am so thankful to my parents for teaching me how important family relationships are. I really want to be able to pass that on to my children. I have great friends, whom I love dearly, but there is just something about family. I didn't realize how much they actually did for me until I tried to do everything on my own.   
I figured out that being thankful is like a math problem. The proportion of thankfulness is equal to or greater than the proportion of happiness. Having a grateful heart helps to focus on the positive parts of life instead of the negative ones, which in turn helps to create a better life. We really forget what we have in abundance when we look at our neighbors and feel that we should be blessed in the same way. Most of the rest of the world doesn’t come close to what we have in the comforts of home. Food, shelter, clothing and transportation are in great abundance.
Family and friends are the icing on the cake in life, and we should remind ourselves to tell them often how grateful we are for them.
While it is easy to get caught up in our busy lives and all that needs to be done, it isn’t enough to be thankful just on Thanksgiving. 
From Thai philosophy, Kak Sri, come wonderful words of encouragement: "Gratitude is an art of painting an adversity into a lovely picture." Remembering to be grateful through all circumstances gives us strength all year round.
Thank you to all of you. You have all touched this families life in so many ways.
I hope you enjoy this day of Thanksgiving. Whether you are blessed to be with family or not, take the time to reach out and share heartfelt love. I am grateful I get to spend this day with both sides of my family.
I am truly abundantly blessed.
I'll make sure I take pictures to be able to add in later.

Whoa!

Two things are official:
Our camera takes horrible pictures indoors, especially at night.
Second: The chillins' are beyond seriously needing a haircut.

Kaleb

Alexander

 

 

If it's summer time I don't mind pulling out the clippers and giving them a nice buzz cut. But, in the winter I have to do this indoor. I very much dislike the hairy mess. Also, we have a beauty college mere miles up the road. They charge $5. That is worth it to leave the hairy mess there! Biggest problem? Both boys loath haircut time. Even with me holding them down and keeping constant candy shoved in their mouth they scream. I can't take them by myself. For some reason they try to do their haircuts at the same time. They have lots of students that they like to keep constantly busy. Jake has such a crazy schedule it's hard to find a time when he can accompany me.
Drama-drama-drama
There is a ridiculous point though where they are worse looking than the Beatles.

Completely random from the hair drama.
Both boys go to the college for school. They are in different programs and never see each other. Today they just happened to meet up outside for playtime. The teachers gathered the kids together and trailed them back to their classrooms. All the sudden they realized they each had a wrong kid. Kaleb had gone to Xander's class, and vice-versus. They quickly switched and sorted this little snafu out while I tried not to bust up laughing as I watched from one of the observation booths. People tell me all the time they are identical twins. I don't think so at all! They are the same height and build. But they look so different to me. Also, Kaleb happens to have a bright orange coat. That's pretty hard to mistake!
Even more random. We lost Xander's gloves. This story has a point and is going somewhere. Today after school I loaded the boys in their stroller for the walk home. All the sudden Xander pulls some hot pink gloves out of his pocket and begins to pull them on. "Uh, where did you get those?"
"Katie's gloves"
He has a girl named Katie in his class. I didn't know he knew anyone's names. Just how casual he was about why he had gloves had me busting up. Now I'm curious why, and how he stole Katie's gloves. If they are even hers?
Oh children. They are so fun!

Fall...Winter

Fall seemed to only last a few days before winter blew in fiercely cold. I easily love and forgive everyone but winter, I just can't seem to get attached to, love, or forgive.

For the sanity of mom and kids, I still force us to go for a walk everyday. We're now spending a lot of time together indoor.

The boys love the computer. I had to set them up their own account so they would stop messing up my desktop. They have discovered typing letters in the word document. They love watching trains, planes, and helicopters on YouTube. They also discovered some of their favorite songs paired with video, and Winnie The Pooh.

The boys are growing so quickly. They are officially not babies.

 They are doing so good in school. Alexander has really improved. He now will go with babysitters, or into church nursery with no problems. This alone was beyond worth it! He is learning to be social and share with other kids. Kaleb still mostly keeps to himself, but, he's slowly coming out of his shell and trying new things.

Halloween was a quiet end to October. There was a small party at church that wasn't really geared for all the toddlers in the Ward. The boys were ecstatic to dress up as two of their favorite characters. Buzz Lightyear and Woody.

We carved pumpkins at home after the party.

The boys were very specific what they wanted done with their pumpkin. A Star, a circle, and a crescent. They asked for a good guy face, I guess this counts? (side note about 'good guy'. They love watching Star Wars with Jake. They quickly learned 'here's the bad guy!' 'good guy!' And as the space ship warps into hyper speed, 'bye-bye')

Halloween the boys decided they wanted to switch costumes. Good thing they both wear the same size clothes.

Our decorations.

We didn't go to many houses. Mostly just around the block. The boys loved ringing the doorbell and yelling "Trick or Treat!" Even more exciting if they got a sucker.

I thought there would be a lot of houses participating and a lot of kids. We live in a city of mostly young families with little kids. I only saw 2 other kids out besides us. Only a few houses had lights on and were offering candy.
I bought a large 115 count bag of Swedish Fish and Sour Patch Kids. We only had 5 trick-or-treaters! The two kids that we saw, we invited them in, they are in our ward. And our neighbors stopped by. I later learned that everyone drives to a certain neighborhood for trick-or-treating. Good to know for next year!
Now I'm stuck with a huge bag of candy that I keep accidentally eating.
Hmmm, I know what I'll be putting in my families 30 stockings this year.

Not much excitement going on around here. Jake is super busy. We make sure we have family night at least once a week, and he and I have a date night, leaving the kids with babysitters, once a week. It's not much but every little bit helps.
Last night for family night the boys discovered bowling. We had empty soda bottles that I filled up with a little bit of water for weight. I placed them at the end of the hall. Gave the boys a ball. It was a huge hit. There was a lot of giggles and fun. Best of all...it was free!